Another defector from the Cat empire

By Caroline Wilson

13 October 2010 — 3:00am

THERE IS something rotten in the state of football right now and taking centre stage in this new and unattractive off-field drama is the Geelong Football Club, which has been dismantled with brutal dexterity before our very eyes.

It continued yesterday with the suspicious departure of Brendan McCartney, Mark Thompson's right-hand man for more than a decade, who told the Cats he was walking - despite having a three-year contract - after being headhunted and signed by no less than the Essendon president David Evans.

Mark Thompson speaks at his press conference to announce he would step down from the Geelong head coach position.

The erosion of the Cat empire underscores a new era of mercenary behaviour in a shifting moral AFL landscape. For decades football clubs have treated their players like pieces of scrap metal moulded to suit the machine of the day but when coaches behave with hypocrisy then you have to wonder who in authority is left for their players to believe in.

It was a testy confrontation early yesterday when McCartney met Geelong club chiefs Brian Cook and Neil Balme. He denied Thompson had lured him to Windy Hill but the prevailing view at the Cattery is that Thompson will join the Bombers in a mentoring role to James Hird.

McCartney was reminded that he had committed to the club for the long term, although such agreements seem to count for little in football these days.

Cook had sought - and reportedly received - an assurance from Thompson when he quit that he would not poach Geelong staff. It's highly unlikely McCartney would not have been influenced by the same man who agreed back in September, despite denials, to work with Hird at Essendon.

Bombers president Evans has now approached two contracted Geelong coaches in Thompson and McCartney - according to the men themselves - and as a result the relationship between Essendon and the Cats has sunk to a new low.

But that is collateral damage compared with the damaged morale at Skilled Stadium. For several years now the Cats have preached sacrifice and loyalty to those star footballers who stuck around for less money to build a multi-premiership dynasty.

No one seemed to preach that message more loudly during 2010 than Mark Thompson, who placed extraordinary public and private pressure on Gary Ablett to remain at the club.

In fact, Geelong will forever be left to ponder if it could have retained Ablett had Thompson treated Ablett with empathy and respect. Instead, the coach deviated blatantly from the ''no pressure'' message that the club agreed to at the start of the season when he stated on radio that he could not understand why Ablett would be tempted by a life-changing offer from the Gold Coast Suns. The view at Geelong is that Thompson did not exactly embrace Ablett privately, either.

Equally galling for the Cats is the suggestion that it was Thompson who recently led the push to retain Darren Milburn and David Wojcinski. The two veterans will play on because the club claims it must now honour that commitment even though the administration had misgivings about such controversial list-management decisions. Certainly all on the list-management committee approved it at the time but that's because the coach pushed for retaining both men.

At the end of 2009, McCartney - Geelong insisted yesterday - had committed to a four-year deal to head up the club's new player academy. He has told the club he now wants to return to a match-day role.

No one would blame Thompson for walking out on the club citing exhaustion - except that he had committed almost a fortnight earlier to working for the James Hird and David Evans vision.

Thompson has denied several times to Cook and outgoing president Frank Costa that he was headed for Essendon. He also stated upon quitting Geelong last week that he had no idea what he would be doing next season. Which means he will have ultimately misled either Geelong or Essendon.

Thompson has also made no secret to Essendon of his less than flattering opinion of Cook's performance in recent times - an issue which has disappointed the Cats.

The senior coaching position now appears to be a battle between Ken Hinkley - the favorite - and Brenton Sanderson. For the sake of the players and the club, a decision should be made within days.

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It is difficult to believe that what followed Geelong's preliminary final capitulation to Collingwood could have humiliated the Cats any more than the Magpies did that night. But what has followed has been an embarrassing unmitigated disaster for the club.

The good news is that premiership reunions only come around every 10 years and hopefully by 2017 the bad blood flowing between the coach and some who remain at the club will have cooled by then and all involved will be able to appreciate just what they achieved together.